Petrit Halilaj with a prestigious award as an artist who fights oppressive norms

The institution with a 327-year tradition has awarded the Prize for Visual Arts to the artist from Kosovo, Petrit Halilaj. Based on Halilaj's creativity, the jury has assessed that this year he should be the laureate of this prestigious award as an artist who constantly researches the personal and collective past by raising politically based questions that explore the interrelationship between reality and fiction. The Berlin Academy of Arts has recognized Halilaj as an artist who explores cultural identity, notions of nationality and heritage, as well as ideas of personal and collective memories and freedom.

The Academy of Arts in Berlin is a point of reference in terms of art institutes in Europe. The institution with a 327-year tradition has awarded the Prize for Visual Arts to the artist from Kosovo, Petrit Halilaj. Based on Halilaj's creativity, the jury has assessed that this year he should be the laureate of this prestigious award as an artist who constantly researches the personal and collective past by raising politically based questions that explore the interrelationship between reality and fiction.

The jury composed of curator Sam Bardaouil, artists Bjorn Melhus and Corinne Wasmuht, has chosen Halilaj to be this year's laureate.

The architecture academy has awarded Xu Tiantian, for music Joanna Bailie, for literature Barbi Markovic, for performing arts Marcel Kohler, and for film Nelly Quettier.

This international institute that counts 422 members and 6 sections has assessed that Petrit Halilaj - born in Kostërc i Skënderaj in 1986 - informed by the politically charged history of his birthplace, Kosovo, and the surrounding region, has developed a multifaceted practice that turns into tangible forms a wide spectrum of personal experiences, places and stories for different people.

"Through immersive spatial installations, often embedded in his experience of war and displacement, and sometimes incorporating materials from his homeland, Halilaj explores cultural identity, notions of nationhood and heritage, as well as ideas of personal and collective memories and those of freedom", is written in the reasoning of the jury. At the ceremony held in Berlin on Saturday, it was also said that from natural materials, animals and found objects to finely crafted ones and elaborate filmic and sound environments, Halilaj works in a variety of media, creating works sometimes- sometimes questionable in terms of honesty and conceiving them as strategies of resistance to oppressive political and social norms.

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In the reasoning of the jury, it is also written that cooperation is another integral component of Halilaj's practice. It shows that in his large-scale installation for the 57th edition of the Venice International Biennale in 2017, he collaborated with his mother to create large performance sculptures constructed from traditional Kosovar textile material. In 2017, Halilaj received "Special Recognition" from the jury of the Biennale for his two installations, the one with butterflies and the one with primers.

The jury also mentioned the collaborations with his partner Alvaro Urbano, until the 2021 exhibition at "Tate St Ives" in Great Britain, where he was presented with a powerful work in which he revisited 38 childhood drawings he had made during when he was in the refugee camp in Kukës, during the war in Kosovo 1998-99, when he was 13 years old. At that time, Halilaj conquered the world media by restoring Kosovo to the elite world of art with "Very volcanic over this green feather", opened in mid-September at "Tate St Ives" in St. Ives of Cornwall. There he unfolded his unique account of the war in Kosovo, and he did so neatly by returning to the drawings he made when he was a refugee.

"Halilaj's collaborations go beyond just working with human beings. They exceed such parameters to include other species, namely birds, which have been repeated collaborators in many of his instillations", it is written in the reasoning of the jury for the artist who in 2013 represented Kosovo in the first participation of the state in International Art Biennale in Venice. According to the jury, what distinguishes Halilaj as a worthy recipient of this award is his understanding of exhibitions as a way to change the course of personal and collective histories, as platforms to reveal the complicated relationship between reality and imagination, official histories and lived experiences.

"This political underpinning of his approach to exhibition creation, together with his wide range of formal and conceptual tools, testify to his ability to keep his finger on the pulse of our time, making him one of the most distinguished of his generation", it is written in the reasoning of the jury.

At the award ceremony, Halilaj said that he is deeply humbled and honored to receive this award and join the ranks of previous laureates who have left their mark on the art world.

"As an artist, I have always believed that exhibitions have the potential to reshape history, including personal and collective histories. Through my work I have always tried to create complex worlds that challenge existing power structures and make room for freedom, desire and intimacy and identity," he said. He addressed the attendees saying that, as is known, he is inspired by his native land, Kosovo, and by the political and cultural tensions that have defined its recent history.

"Living between Germany, Kosovo and Italy, I am fascinated by being in the middle position. In many ways my art is an attempt to face these complex realities and to create opposite poetics for the future", he said. He added that as he moves forward, he is committed to continuing to create art "that challenges and provokes, that resists and celebrates, and that makes room for new possibilities and ways of being".

Halilaj, through his works around the world, often returns to Kosovo. Last year at the nomadic biennial "Manifesta" he presented the call for a new sky, which goes beyond an appeal to society. His sentence "When the sun is gone, we will paint the sky" will not remain just one of the stories layered temporarily during the year 2022 by the "Manifesto" in Pristina. Halilaj's work will remain for another year where it is, above the "Grand" hotel.

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But the story does not end there. Halilaj has gone further. The sentence that got the attention of the world media that reported on "Manifesto 14" has been attributed to the state collection of art works of Kosovo.

"It is a spark in my heart with joy that I have the opportunity to donate the work 'When the sun goes away we will paint the sky' to the state art collection of the Republic of Kosovo, since the project itself is the result of the people, energy and enthusiasm of the vision of young citizens of Europe", said Petrit Halilaj.